Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
by gothicbutterfly95
Summary: Waiting for Fiyero, Elphaba contemplates all the changes in her life. Named after the Elton John song. Cover picture credit to elphaba-vs-glinda on Deviantart.


It hadn't taken long for Elphaba to feel cramped under the trapdoor.

The box – that was really the only way to describe it – was tiny. There was barely enough room for Elphaba to fit; and no space left over, making it impossible for her to move very much. She had no alternative but to wait.

Glinda had only hovered for a minute or two after Elphaba had disappeared under the trapdoor. She heard the only friend she'd ever had call out her name and sob when she realised she wasn't there.

She'd heard Chistery approach Glinda and hand her something, smiling to herself as the Monkey had said Glinda's name. She didn't know what he had given her, until she checked one of the pockets in her dress and couldn't find her mother's little green bottle. But so many other events had happened that she wasn't able to be upset about it. Besides, it was in good hands.

After Glinda had left it had gotten very lonely and uncomfortable very quickly.

* * *

Elphaba didn't know how long she stayed down there but, even if it wasn't long, it felt like forever. So while she was waiting, she thought.

She thought about anything and everything. She thought about Fiyero, how much she loved him. How she had tried, with all she had left in her, to save him and how she worried herself sick internally about the result. About how the note had arrived, so cryptically written she'd had a very hard time decipherating it. She'd have to ask Fiyero later how he'd done it.

She thought about the poor girl, and her dog. All she had wanted was to go home. Thinking back over it now, she didn't blame Dorothy. She was nothing more than a victim. She had been told the Wizard would fix her problems, and she'd believed them. Elphaba could definitely relate to that.

She hoped the girl did get home to see her Aunt Em and Uncle What's-His-Name again. There really was no place like home.

Mostly, though she thought about Glinda. She thought about how their relationship had changed. They'd gone from unadulterated loathing to as thick as thieves. On the day they first met, she had driven Elphaba insane. But now, she could wholeheartedly call Glinda a friend.

This whole ordeal had been very hard for Elphaba. Leaving Fiyero had been hard. Finding out Nessa was dead had been hard. Trying to save Fiyero's life had been hard.

The hardest thing, by far though, had been lying to Glinda.

She thought her Elphie was dead, and would never find out that she had actually survived. If she had had any other option she would have taken it. But there wasn't. They would never meet again.

Elphaba was about to say goodbye to a lot of things. But Glinda was definitely what she would miss the most. Saying goodbye to Glinda for good was just as hard as lying to her.

* * *

Finally, there was a banging above her head, an all-too familiar voice crying "It worked!" and then the trapdoor opened.

Elphaba had never been so happy to smell fresh air as she was at that moment. But as soon as she looked up, she forgot about everything except him.

"Fiyero, Fiyero," she cried, pulling herself out to sit beside him, to look at him. To be with him. "I thought you'd never get here."

He was right. It had worked. The spell, the one she had cast when she had been in such a state that she didn't think would ever work, somehow had. And now here he was.

It was still him. When Elphaba had cast the spell, she didn't know what it would do to him. All she knew was that it was his only chance, so she had done it. The man before her was not a man at all, but a scarecrow. But it was still, and would always be, Fiyero.

Fiyero could see her hesitance. "Go ahead, touch," he said. "I don't mind. You did the best you could, you saved my life."

Elphaba smiled at his comment as she reached out and held him. "You're still beautiful," she sighed.

He told her she didn't have to lie to him, but she cut him off, echoing the same thing he had told her what felt like a lifetime ago, on their magical night together: "It's not lying; it's looking at things another way."

He smiled back at her and helped her up, holding her close.

A wave of nostalgia ran through Elphaba as she looked around. This was the ending. It was time to close this chapter of her life.

"It's time to go," Fiyero stated.

"We can never come back to Oz," Elphaba sighed, meeting his gaze for a second. "Can we?"

He shook his head.

Elphaba couldn't help it. She let go of his hand and walked a little away. She needed a moment to herself.

Was there any reason for her to stay? Probably not. As much as she wanted her to, she knew Glinda could never know the truth, and everyone else she cared about was gone forever. Nessa, Doctor Dillamond, they were both gone. Her parents were gone, her future with the Wizard was long gone. Glinda was the only thing she had that tied her to this place, and in a way, she was also the reason they had to go.

If they wanted to be safe, they had to leave forever. It was true that Glinda had rewritten Elphaba's story. She had hoped she had rewritten Glinda's too.

But now it was time for them to go their separate ways. They would have to write the rest of their stories on their own. To Oz she was dead and gone. It was time for her to say goodbye to the yellow brick road. Now the only future she had was the one she was about to embark on with Fiyero.

* * *

She made her way over to where he was waiting by the door. He took the pointed black hat from under his arm and placed it on her head. Elphaba immediately felt a little better now that she was wearing the hat. Just because she was leaving, she wasn't forgetting who she was.

She took a deep breath and took Fiyero's hand. Together the stepped through the door, ready to face whatever came next. It was uncertain, but they both knew it was a future that lay beyond the yellow brick road.


End file.
